Although its origins can be traced back centuries to the medieval Houses of Convocation, the Synod - or Senate - in its current form is a product of the 1970s.

It replaced a body called the Church Assembly and passes canon law, relating specifically to the church, as well as legislative measures, which are the equivalent of Acts of Parliament although which have much more limited scope.

Like Government Bills, the Synod's legislation goes through multiple stages of revision and amendments and before finally receiving approval.

Its decisions receive royal assent from the Queen in the same way as other Acts, although they usually also require a rubber stamp from a Parliamentary committee.

Unlike the Anglican churches in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Church of England is effectively a branch of the British state, with the Queen as its Earthly head, bishops sitting in the Lords and its own courts while its clergy also have legal powers as marriage registrars.

The Synod also has many of the trappings of a parliament: with a stream of amendments, points of order, procedural rules and – of course - its own jargon. Members have their own favourite adjective: “synodical” to describe what they get up to.

When it sits in London – where it holds sessions at Church House in Westminster in February and November – the Synod even has a parliamentary-style tea room.

In the summer it meets in the less formal setting of the university campus in York, holding its debates in a vast brutalist concrete conference hall surrounded by a lake inhabited a large and raucous population of geese.

All delegates stay on the campus, sleeping in student rooms, eating in the canteens and thrashing out their doctrinal differences in the student bars until late at night.

Technically the Synod is made up of three “houses” – bishops, clergy and laity – although it almost always sits as one.

Votes are also usually carried by a simple majority of those present but on some issues the members can choose to vote by house. Major changes require a two thirds majority in all three houses.

This is crucial in the women bishops debate, which is the most significant piece of legislation the Synod has dealt with for 20 years.

In November 2012 a measure to open the episcopate to women secured the support of almost three quarters of the Synod overall but collapsed after falling short of the required majority in the House of Laity by six votes.

Although support for the new measure is even stronger, it could ultimately come down to a handful of votes.